1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inexpensive, reusable anchor that is adaptable to most roofs and provides a connecting point for a safety line.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A primary concern of any worker that must perform tasks atop a roof is the danger of falling and hurting themselves. A common problem in the roofing industry is injury due to accidents, some of which have been very severe. The United States Government has recognized this danger and has passed regulations requiring fall prevention systems. In order to prevent these injuries, roofers often wear safety harnesses that are connected to the roof by a safety line. If the user should lose his footing the safety line will prevent him from falling. The difficulty presented by this arrangement is the connecting of the safety line to the roof. This connection must be secure enough to withstand the force exerted by the safety line when the user""s weight is thrust against it. It is also desirable that the connection can be easily adapted to the wide variety of pitches that exist in the design of roofs. The connection should be as easy and quick to install as possible since the user cannot be fully secured until this has been accomplished. It should also be removable so that the device can be used on new jobs. This feature is important since the economics of the industry require minimizing costs as much as possible
Workers on roofs require as much freedom of movement as possible to perform their tasks. Any connecting device should allow the user to move freely in a three hundred and sixty degree arc. Limitations on this movement would severely burden their already difficult tasks. It should also allow this movement without risking any entangling of the safety line.
There are inventions currently in existence for the anchoring of a safety line to a roof, but each of these have faults that make them impractical for the many jobs and types of roofs that the average roofer faces. Many designs involve a safety attachment that is permanently incorporated in the design of the roof. While this is an ideal situation, many older houses will not have this feature. It may also be deemed aesthetically undesirable to have such a feature. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the prevalent disposable anchors that are designed for one time use. These are an unnecessary recurring economic burden on roofers and lack the flexibility and ease of the present invention. All of the remaining designs lack the maximum adaptability and freedom that the present invention affords the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,534 to David Gleave is an example of devices existing in the prior art that are permanently incorporated into the structure of the roof. These building components are designed in a variety of ways to be fitted to common structural supports in a roof such as trusses, roof ridges and gutter systems. While the security of such a design is evident, as a practical mater it hardly aids the average roofer working on pre-existing structures. The device then incorporates a loop for connecting the safety line. In order to allow mobility for the user, the Gleave ""534 Patent discloses a complicated traveler and rail system. This system would be much more expensive to make then the present invention and would afford no greater mobility. It would also require maintenance to prevent blocking of the rail system and could easily jam.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,452 to Marcel Peter Pantano discloses an anchoring system that straddles the peak of a roof and is attached on either side like the present invention. It is however made in a permanent shape with a flat inflexible central portion. Unlike the hinged design of the present invention, the Pantano ""452 device would be limited to roofs having a specific pitch. The Pantano device also uses attachments that connect to the arms that straddle the roof and limit use to that side of the roof where the attachment is placed. This is in contrast to the unique structure provided by the present invention that provides a centrally located hoop that is hinged so as to allow the safety line to pass from the connection in any direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,558 to Stacy Thornton also discloses a design that straddles a roof peak and is attached on either side. The legs of this design extend at an angle from one another. The device can be conformed to any pitch of roof by bending the legs towards one another at the central point of the angle. The draw back to this approach is that the anchor can only be adapted one time and will therefore be of no use to a roofer on a new job with a different pitch. The point of attachment is once again located on either side of the roof so as to limit the user to a one hundred and eighty degree range of motion.
United States Patent to Dennis Bredijk discloses a complicate scaffolding device that is attached to the roof using an anchoring system that involves a bracket that is placed over the peak of a roof and uses a ballast block to secure it. This method of attachment would not provide the level of security that exists in the multiple nail down design of the present invention and only allows for attachment to one side of the roof at one time whereas the present invention connects at a central location.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,021 to Steve Nichols is an anchoring device that relies on a bracket that incorporates two parallel sides that attach on either side of a rafter and have a connector extending upward. This design provides a permanent device that would require access to the rafters of the roof, thus necessitating either installation at the time of building or major deconstruction to install.
U.S. Pat. No. D440,672 to Richard Alexander is a design patent for a roof anchor device. Unlike the present invention, it uses a permanently flat structure that could only be attached to one side of the roof. The connection is mounted to this flat structure by a stitched material that would not provide the level of support existing in the metallic hinged design of the present invention.
Therefore a need exists for a novel and enhanced tool for anchoring workers during the strenuous and dangerous task of doing roof work. Such a device should be as economical as possible and adaptable to many shapes of roof. In addition it should be designed to install easily and quickly. It should maximize the mobility of the user while providing sufficient support for large weights. In this respect, the reusable roof safety line anchor according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of connecting a safety line to a roof structure.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of devices for anchoring safety lines to a roof now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved combination of economy, security and adaptability, and overcomes the abovementioned disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved reusable roof anchor for safety lines which has all of the advantages of the prior art mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a reusable roof anchor for safety lines which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in combination thereof.
In furtherance of this objective, the reusable roof anchor for safety lines comprises a pair of flat rectangular mount flaps designed for removable attachment to a roof. Said pair of flat rectangular mount flaps are connected by an axle which incorporates a C-shaped member for attaching a security line. The angle formed by said pair of flat rectangular mount flaps can be adjusted to any size by rotating them about said axle.
There has been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
The axle in said present invention may in addition comprise a pair of pins that are attached to either end of a C-shaped member. This design will provide a central attachment site that can shift to allow maximum freedom of movement by rotationally adjusting to the location of the user. Said pair of pins will be received by a set of hinges connected to said flaps. Said flaps will movably rotate about said axle to allow adjustment to any pitch of roof.
An additional aspect of the reusable roof anchor for safety lines is that the above-described flaps will comprise a series of holes. Said holes are shaped to receive the standard carpenter""s nail. The preferred pattern is a set of rows with the holes staggered to provide the maximum resistance to force applied by a security line.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of descriptions and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved reusable roof anchor for safety lines that has all of the advantages of the prior art and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved reusable roof anchor for safety lines that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved reusable roof anchor for safety lines that has a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such reusable roof safety line anchor s economically available to the buying public.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new reusable roof anchor for safety lines that provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.